Biden supports Ukraine to stop Putin and asks Israel not to use humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip

Foreign policy has taken first and last place in President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

In two blocks separated by domestic issues, the Democratic president has made a vigorous defense of aid to kyiv (“Ukraine can defend itself with more help”) and, to close his speech, of the US contribution to humanitarian aid. to remedy the catastrophic situation in Gaza, with nods to both parties in the conflict, especially, for unprecedented reasons, to Israel.

The Ukrainian chapter and the Middle East chapter, along with a coda on the rivalry with China, were Biden's references to a turbulent world, of global instability, which is also causing him headaches at home: the Republicans by blocking in the Congress helps Kiev, and the Democrats themselves, by asking them for concrete requests to alleviate the catastrophe in Gaza.

The flood of punishment votes from voters who in the primaries did not check the box that bears their name, in protest of Washington's support for Israel, could not go unanswered tonight, because their fate in November will be partly linked to his policy in the Middle East.

Turbulent and strange times, “in which freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and abroad, at the same time.

Abroad, Putin is on the march, invading Ukraine and wreaking havoc across Europe and beyond.

If anyone in this room thinks that Putin will stop in Ukraine, I assure you that he will not,” he noted, although “Ukraine can stop Putin if we provide him with the weapons he needs to defend himself.”

That's all Ukraine asks for.

“They are not asking for American soldiers, there are none, and I am determined to keep it that way.”

Just four minutes after starting his speech, Biden took advantage of the war in Europe to launch the first hook at his Republican rival, Donald Trump.

Without naming him, the Democratic president regretted Trump's recent statements inviting Moscow to do whatever he wants with NATO allies that do not contribute to the Alliance's budget.

Biden compared him, unkindly, to a co-religionist of his: “It wasn't that long ago that a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, cried out: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'

Now, a former American president, bowing to a Russian leader, said 'do whatever you want.'

"It's scandalous, it's dangerous."

Addressing the congressmen, he asked: “We must stand up to Putin.

Send me the Bipartisan Homeland Security Act [passed by the Senate, blocked in the House by Republicans].

History is watching.

If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk.

"Europe at risk, the free world in danger, emboldening those who want to harm us."

He also had a direct message for his Russian counterpart: “We will not leave, we will not bow down, I will not bow down.

History watches us, as it watched us three years ago, on January 6,” the day a horde of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

The equivalence between freedom and democracy, in the United States and in the world, ran through his message.

Without making an excessive profession of Atlanticist faith, Biden recalled in his message to welcome the incorporation into NATO of Finland last year and of Sweden today.

After the bulk of the speech, dedicated to domestic issues, Biden closed with the Middle East and the rivalry with China.

The first issue was the most anticipated, after it became known this Thursday that the United States will establish a humanitarian aid point on the Gaza coast.

But his words about the war between Israel and Hamas were long-awaited, perhaps because they were the most anticipated, and they came at the end of the speech.

The pressure on the White House from Democratic voters who reject support for Israel is increasingly pressing, as the Michigan and Minnesota primaries, among others, have shown, so Biden took advantage of the occasion to officially announce the plan for Israel. that the US Army will help establish a temporary port on the coast of the Strip.

Because it is not only Democratic voters who are putting pressure on him, but also many party legislators.

“While we manage challenges at home,” he said after reviewing all the challenges in the United States, from healthcare to immigration to reproductive rights, “we also manage crises abroad, including the Middle East.

I know that the last five months have been heartbreaking for many people, for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people and for many here in the United States,” she conceded, alluding to the victims on both sides.

Biden recapped what has happened since October 7, “the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Israel has the right to pursue Hamas, Biden said, although it has “an added burden” because the Islamist group “hides and operates among the civilian population.”

But, he stressed in line with the strongest comments of the vice president, Kamala Harris, in recent days, “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza,” since the war has claimed “more innocent civilian victims than all the previous ones in Gaza.”

“More than 30,000 Palestinians have died, most of them are not from Hamas, they are thousands and thousands of innocent women and children, boys and girls also orphans,” she declared about a “heartbreaking” panorama of neighborhoods in rubble “and cities in ruins.”

Biden explained that his Administration has been working to establish “an immediate ceasefire that lasts at least six weeks.”

Despite the presence of his ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in the room, he did not mention the three vetoes with which his country has blocked initiatives for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Strip.

He did emphasize American leadership in international efforts to get more aid to Gaza, citing the announced temporary dock plan on its coast as an example.

“Tonight I have ordered the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary dock in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Gaza, that can receive large ships loaded with food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.

There will be no American troops on the ground, but Israel must also do its part,” allowing more aid to the Strip and ensuring that aid workers “are not caught in the crossfire.”

“To Israel's leaders I say this: humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.

Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.

Looking to the future, the only real solution is that of the two states, I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel and as the only American president who has visited Israel in times of war," he concluded, not without remembering that, without These premises, “there will be no other path that guarantees the security and democracy of Israel.”

Biden also addressed the risk of regional conflict if the situation does not de-escalate, the need to contain the threat posed by Iran as a necessary condition for the stability of the Middle East, or the security of transportation in the Red Sea, “I have ordered attacks to degrade the capabilities of the Huthies and defend our forces in the region.”

The president dedicated the signature of his speech to China and the commercial and geostrategic competition between both powers.

“For years the only thing I have heard from my Republican friends and so many others is that China is rising and the United States is falling behind.

They have understood it backwards.

The United States is rising and our trade deficit with China has dropped to the lowest point in more than a decade.

“We are fighting against China's unfair economic practices and defending peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he noted.

And he also took advantage of the end of the speech to criticize Trump, without naming him, for not thinking of betting on associations and alliances in the Pacific, "and that the most advanced American technologies cannot be used in China's weapons." as the Democrat has done during his mandate.

Therefore, he concluded, “we are in a stronger position to win the 21st century competition against China or anyone else.”

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